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Charlie Villa, front row, third from left, poses with his 1948-49 St. Mary’s High School basketball teammates. Villa was the team’s leading scorer. He also excelled on the baseball diamond for the Cougars and later played both sports at the College of St. Joseph.
Courtesy of the Villa family
Charley Villa was a modest man, though never to a fault. If he’d had the back-in-my-day gene, what colorful stories about his athletic career he could have told.
He chose not to.
Villa, a well-known and highly successful Albuquerque restaurateur and concessionaire, died on Feb. 17 at age 90. The business career he built with his wife, Shirley, is in itself a remarkable story.